I love the post below. I especially love it today because I have not followed my own advice and insights. I’ve over done it. I got stressed and I burned out.

It all hit me yesterday. I’m an excellent multi-tasker and when I’m not watching, I pride myself of such quality. I also – when I’m not watching – pride myself in my never ending search for perfection. Let me qualify “I’m not watching”. It means both of these qualities – multi-tasker and perfectionist – taken to extremes are very detrimental. So I try to keep an eye on myself as not to get my excellent qualities to over perform.

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done in a long time; nothing. I didn’t write, or work, or clean or organize. I watched movies, played with my dogs, cooked a nice meal and saw friends at night. But at the end of the day I had to wrestle with the idea I had wasted a day. My mind and my heart had an argument. My heart kept saying: “What is this thing about wasting a day? Did you have fun? Did you relax? Isn’t that what it’s all supposed to be about? My mind kept saying: “What will you have to show for today, tomorrow?” “All that you had to do is still there waiting for you”.

We live in a world that makes us feel that unless we are producing we are wasting our time. And simply relaxing and enjoying ourselves falls in the category of wasting time. But how often are we burned out? How often do we get physically and emotionally tired because we just keep going?

We all know what it feels like to be physically tired but emotionally tired can be a little bit trickier. We might attribute our feelings to depression or frustration without ever realizing that sometimes we just need to take a break.

Creativity needs room to grow and expand and a busy mind is often cluttered. Always going from task to task gives us the impression of being productive but in truth we are compromising quality.

Time and a relaxed mind allows us to notice and appreciate things that otherwise might go unnoticed. Usually they are things that could feed our hearts on a daily basis and actually affect our quality of life; a smile, a conversation, a smell, an animal, the sun.

Change makes us uncomfortable but that is when the mind, having decided on the right path, tells the heart to quiet down that it is all okay.

Giving ourselves the space to reflect lets us know how we truly are feeling and what is important for us.

So that is what I’m doing these days. I’m slowing down and teaching myself to relax. It’s a tough undertaking but one with great rewards.

Passion is the most important ingredient in life. I am not just referring to passion between two people but am talking about fun and enjoying ourselves which results in wanting to do things with energy, with passion.

Unfortunately today’s way of living ends up usurping any passion out of our lives as most of us are always in a hurry. We have to get up early to work or take care of kids. We spend our days performing tasks and running from one place to another and at night we try to catch up with things that were left undone from the day; so no wonder most of us are often tired and lacking motivation.

Living fast to keep ourselves afloat often ends up in boredom. Passion, the exact opposite of boredom, needs space to flourish and needs daily feeding.

We live in a society that quantity has replaced quality. How many of us ask ourselves this question: “Have I produced enough today?” But how many of us ask: “Did I have enough quality time today? Did I feed my passion?”

Creating space for passion, the fuel of life, does not have to be complicated. We don’t need to travel expensively, have wild sex or eat at the most expensive restaurant in town to feed our passion. What we need to do is to slow down enough and have the time to check in with ourselves. To close our eyes, take a deep breath and ask ourselves how we are doing and what is it that we need. When we do that we become more in tune with ourselves and we can be our own givers of the things that make us smile; be that a glass of wine, a walk in the park, a nice meal, a massage, or just relaxing while listening to music. Whatever it is, if we slow down we’ll know how to provide.

We are not machines; we are complicated beings full of feelings and thoughts. Crossing tasks off our “to do” lists non-stop only create lives without pizzazz and who wants that? Especially because when we get bored we may opt for creating havoc in our surroundings just to feel something and that is not passion; it is self destruction.

So I’m working on checking in with myself and making sure I’m feeding my “soul” to have enough passion to have a life well lived.